coastal forest

Kuranui and Waikaia are iwi-owned islands in the Slipper group off the east coast of the Coromandel peninsula that have not been surveyed for 50 years. We visited both islands for one day and night each in April 2024 and undertook rodent trapping and species surveys of birds, reptiles, and vascular plants. The islands have changed little in 50 years. The avifauna remains similar and shared between both islands while the vegetation has continued to recover on a successional trajectory to a native state following burning. Some new weed species have colonised both islands.

The number and abundance of exotic weeds in native forest fragments are known to correlate with the distance to the nearest large town. This is of concern as land near lowland forest is increasingly being subdivided for housing throughout much of New Zealand. We quantified the relationship between settlements and exotic plants for the coastal forests in eastern Northland, New Zealand. Exotic plant species were sampled in 18 coastal forest areas of varying size, and related to attributes of nearby settlements (housing proximity, density, age, and the exotic plant species present).